JPL scientist analyzes advantages and disadvantages of science in IO dystopian drama

A large part of the human race has settled in a distant colony, leaving behind an uninhabitable land. IO, The modest follow-up of his post-apocalyptic thriller by Netflix, Bird box. Directed by Jonathan Halpert, it's an ambitious film that does not really work, with an icy rhythm, a little dramatic tension and a rather flat tone. But there are still beautiful moments and a premise conducive to reflection. This led us to wonder what part of the film was based on real science. So we turned to Kevin Hand, an astrobiologist and planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for answers.

Hand is an ideal person to comment on the science of film. His research interests include the study of the oceanic worlds of the outer solar system, in particular Jupiter's Moon, Europa, considered a promising site for extraterrestrial life. He tried to recreate the conditions on the Europa lab – what he calls "Europa in a can" – to see if any revealing life forms could form. (This has not been done yet, but who knows when a breakthrough could occur?) And Hand is part of NASA / JPL's Europa Clipper mission to send a robotic spacecraft to perform overflights. closer to the distant moon. He even consulted on the 2013 film "found footage" of science fiction, Europa Report, who dramatized a fictional crewed mission on Jupiter's moon.

(Spoilers below for IO.)

The world of IO Is dark. A catastrophic event made the Earth's atmosphere toxic and most surviving humans settled in a colony on one of Jupiter's moons, Io. Those who hung on to hope and who remained were forced to move at high altitudes, although many died before they could do so. Our protagonist, Sam Walden (Margaret Qualley), lives a lonely existence on one of these mountains, continues his father's scientific research on bees and hopes for a genetic miracle that will allow him to breathe freely again one day.

Sam recovers everything she needs from the abandoned ruins of human civilization below, using oxygen tanks to survive these short excursions. Every night, she looks through a telescope at Io, where her boyfriend Elon (voiced by Tom Payne) participates in an interstellar mission to find a new Earth-like planet for the settlers. Their messages at a distance are his only human touch. Then, one day, a hot air balloon descends from the sky, carrying Micah (Anthony Mackie), who lost his family in the disaster. He urges Sam to accompany him for the final launch of the shuttle, carrying all remaining survivors from the Earth to the colony.

Setting up a human colony on Io is "simply unsustainable".

Unfortunately, setting up a human colony on Io is "simply unsustainable," according to Hand. The moon does not have any atmosphere and it is the most active body of our solar system in our solar system, much more active than the Earth. Every colony would be faced daily with lava flows and plumes of volcanic matter that were raining. And since Io is deeply in Jupiter's magnetic field, all the colonists would also be permanently exposed to intense radiation. Fun fact: It would take between 35 minutes and an hour, in a sense, for a message to travel from Earth to Io (or vice versa). No wonder Sam finds it difficult to communicate with his distant beloved.

In short, "there are many more places much livable for a human colony than Io," said Hand-Mars, for example. But director Ridley Scott has already made a blockbuster movie about setting up a colony on Mars. Setting up a series of space stations to house former inhabitants of the Earth might seem more logical, but if a society is advanced enough to carry out a project of such magnitude, it should also be able to take care of his planet of origin.

Still, "I'm going to give them a mulligan on [colonizing Io]because it 's not really central in the movie, "Hand said," This principle is just a mechanism to motivate the plot, but I like the fact that it has attracted the ". attention of many Internet users on Io.

A toxic land

However, Hand found the notion of the toxic atmosphere of the Lower Earth fascinating, a situation that would require any living being in need of oxygen to move higher. "Maybe the oxygen is thinner, but they can still survive," he said. The movie never really explains how it happened. it simply refers to a certain catastrophic event that has pushed our planet beyond the tipping point, causing a sudden shift to toxicity.

According to Mr. Hand, a massive series of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions could do the trick, like a supervolcan eruption in Yellowstone (such events occurred in the region there are 2.1 million, 1, 3 million and about 630,000 years ago). The other option is the standard "get out of jail" card for a planetary scientist looking for a viable explanation: a large asteroid or comet hit the Earth, similar to the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.

A little nitpick: in the film, the Earth now has a very clearly stratified atmosphere. This is a common feature on many other planets, but in reality, the Earth has a very dynamic, constantly moving atmosphere. "We have all kinds of zonal winds that move, both according to the altitude in the atmosphere, the longitude and the latitude," said Hand. This makes the stratified atmosphere stable much more difficult on Earth.

Another little fussy: Sam drives a sporty ATV in the mountains when she ventures into the danger zone. And it seems to run on an internal combustion engine, which requires oxygen. "If she can not breathe, the engine can not breathe either," Hand said. An electric vehicle with a charging station (perhaps even powered by solar energy) would have made more sense and is quite feasible for this supposed future in the short term.

"There is a lot of that kind of high-tech, low-budget science fiction that is ripe for picking."

Sam's pursuit on behalf of his father is even more fascinating for Hand. She studies bees and other insects to determine if they could mutate to survive in more difficult conditions. If bees could do this, could humans not develop a symbiotic relationship with useful microbes that would also allow Sam to breathe toxic air without dying? The way this might work is another flaw in the movie's plot, but it's not a totally unfounded scenario, as it has been found that some life forms even developed under extreme conditions hydrothermal vents in deep water.

While he was still a student, Hand joined the team of filmmaker James Cameron to collect marine biology samples from deep sea hydrothermal vents. He also appeared in the director's 2005 IMAX documentary, Aliens from the depths. So, he studied this ecosystem first-hand. The macrofauna (crabs, mussels, shrimps) manages to survive very well in an environment rich in sulfur that should be fatal. But they have developed symbiotic relationships with useful microbes that detoxify water throughout the macrofauna cycle. "Humans have a lot of microbes in our guts, for example," Hand said. Thus, "you can certainly imagine that our microbiome adapts in one way or another – not only our digestive system but also our respiratory system – that allows us to survive in more toxic environments . "

Like us, Hand really liked IO, in terms of performance and cinematography. "I think it's possible to achieve this kind of high-quality, high-budget, low-budget science fiction, and that the timing is right for the movie" Netflix, "" he said. . "So it's wonderful to see Netflix investing in this type of story."